Short-sighted?

[FishnDave]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/an-angler-earned-over-100-000-catching-an-unwanted-species-of-fish-this-summer/ar-AA1iiItO?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=cbaeaf86bf0441c5bb5f5ef6148a2d7a&ei=32

Why is the Northern Pikeminnow, a native species, "undesirable"?  They eat baby salmon?  They've coexisted with the salmon in this system for thousands of years.  Salmon numbers may be decreasing, but the cause is likely something not called "Northern Pikeminnow".  Since natural systems balance out, if there's fewer salmon, there's gonna be fewer pikeminnows.

[tjm]

38 minutes ago, FishnDave said:

They've coexisted with the salmon in this system for thousands of years. 

Yes but they did that without the dams. And yes it is short sighted, the only way to fix the salmon problem is take out a bunch of dams and then follow that by a moratorium on salmon fishing or at least severe restrictions on salmon fishing. But what the power companies have found out is that the people don't really care about the salmon, just give them a few bucks and a red herring. . The salmon have survived a  long time, let them be extinct, we need that power to wash our cars,  water our lawns and cool our  shopping centers.

 

36 minutes ago, FishnDave said:

Since natural systems balance out, if there's fewer salmon, there's gonna be fewer pikeminnows.

The pikeminnows flourish in the impoundments, the salmon not so much. We are in a conspiracy to destroy the salmon.

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

I'm curious about the tagged fish.    Why would they catch and release undesired fish?   In order to tag them, you must catch them.   Once caught, why reintroduce it?   I'm very confused with the intent of that process. 

 But, congratulations to those who got paid to fish.   Doesn't sound like a bad part time gig.  Set your own hours, and goals.  

[tjm]

18 minutes ago, Daryk Campbell Sr said:

curious about the tagged fish.

If you go out to fish and are promised $6 each, your interest might lag fairly quick, but if every cast has the promise of a $500 bill, your interest will likely last longer. And the more news reports are generated by lucky anglers hooking the big pay fish the more attention is on the program rather than the dams.

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

1 hour ago, tjm said:

If you go out to fish and are promised $6 each, your interest might lag fairly quick, but if every cast has the promise of a $500 bill, your interest will likely last longer. And the more news reports are generated by lucky anglers hooking the big pay fish the more attention is on the program rather than the dams.

I can understand that reasoning.  I can't say I agree, but I understand.  

[MOFishwater]

Seems pretty straightforward:

 

Northern Pikeminnow are a native species that eats millions of juvenile salmon and steelhead each year in the Columbia and Snake River systems. The goal of the Pikeminnow Program is not to eradicate Northern Pikeminnow, but rather to reduce their average size by removing 10 to 20 percent of the larger fish from their population.  Reducing the number of larger Northern Pikeminnow and thus shrinking the average-sized fish in the population can greatly help juvenile salmon and steelhead make it to sea, since smaller sized Northern Pikeminnow eat fewer smolts than larger fish.

[tjm]

I believe both the numbers increased dramatically  and the average size of pikeminnows increased when the impoundments provided perfect habitat for them, thus the power company is somewhat responsible for the decrease in salmon, they are using these payments as a form of mitigation. The pikeminnow have been eating salmon for eons but it only became a problem when the reservoirs were built. The problem with the program is that we will only realize it's failure when there are no more salmon. Think about using a bandaid when sutures are needed. 

[Quillback]

1 hour ago, tjm said:

I believe both the numbers increased dramatically  and the average size of pikeminnows increased when the impoundments provided perfect habitat for them, thus the power company is somewhat responsible for the decrease in salmon, they are using these payments as a form of mitigation. The pikeminnow have been eating salmon for eons but it only became a problem when the reservoirs were built. The problem with the program is that we will only realize it's failure when there are no more salmon. Think about using a bandaid when sutures are needed. 

Yes, you are correct, pikeminnows are predators of salmon and steelhead smolts and benefited from the impoundment system on the Columbia.

I used to follow salmon issues pretty closely when I lived out there, but not anymore.  My 2 cents is that salmon don't do well in a landscape with dams, cities, farms (irrigation), dikes and levies, container ports and everything that comes with a large human population.  Then you throw in fishing pressure for fish that can bring over $20 lb. for fillets. 

I've watched salmon recovery efforts in the Pacific NW for 35 years and it has been mostly a story of failure.  About a billion $ per year is spent on Columbia system salmon recovery, it has become something of an industry and if it isn't working too well, it does provide some make work jobs.

I'd like to believe the fish can come back, but I doubt they will.  

The pikeminnow deal has been going on for something like 25 years at least.  It doesn't look to be making a difference.  But once programs like this get started, you can't kill them off.

Pikeminnow aren't that easy to catch, anyone making $100K is doing well.

[tjm]

11 minutes ago, Quillback said:

It doesn't look to be making a difference. 

It certainly keeps the idea that the power company is trying to correct the problem in the news. That in itself makes it successful from their viewpoint. I doubt that the reward program was ever intended to help the salmon, but if it reduces demands for dam removal, it is worth the $billions. It's all a big PR game.

Salmon and their predators evolved to need big free flowing rivers and the surprising thing is that they have survived this long in that system.